anne thompson is live in rome, italy, this morning.ood morning. >> reporter: good morning, ch s christina. pope benedict celebrated palm sunday's mass in st. peters square. he spoke in several languages addressing the crowd that came from all around the world but he did not address the sexual abuse crisis that has put a cloud of suspicion over the catholic church as it begins its most l solemn week in the calendar year. this is the week when the church commemorates the death of jesus christ and then his rising from the dead on easter sunday. the pope will be very visible this week and many people are looking here to rome to see if the pope will say anything about this crisis. it is not -- it is no longer just an american problem. within the last couple of weeks there have been accusations of sexual abuse in the netherlands, in germany -- that's where pope benedict comes from -- in ireland, in france, and pope benedict is now getting caught up in the scandal in part because there are accusations that when he was a cardinal that he looke

anne thompson is in rome this morning with more.> reporter: good morning, peter, the latest defense of pope benedict xvi comes from an unexpected person, the italian foreign minister, in an unexpected place, his facebook page. he writes that the attacks on the pope are, quote, scandalous and disgraceful. questions arose about the transfer of a priest accused of sexual abuse. a letter outlining the fact that the priest, a known pedophile could be working with children again. peter? >> anne, is it possible the pope would ever consider resignation? >> no. it would be highly, highly, highly unlikely. he is not a politician. he is the leader of the catholic church. and that is something very, very different and he is appointed by or chosen by the cardinals. but what you are hearing increasingly here in rome from a leading newspaper in italy and from the leading catholic newspaper in the united states is they are asking the pope to make a full accounting of what he knew about these scandals and when he knew it. peter? >> nbc's anne thomps

thompson. now it took jurors just 2 and a half hours to reach this verdict and in the end they found queen ann, miss williams and mark hobs guilty of first degree child abuse in the death of thompson as well as second degree murder. we spoke with the prosecutor and the victim's grandmother as they left the courthouse tonight. >> these people are surely guilty of everything that the jury convicted them of. i'm absolutely delighted that the jury came back with a just verdict in this case. >> right now i wish -- this is in his name. this is all about him. not about me or my daughter. it's about the. >>reporter: now all 3 face a maximum of 60 years behind bars. they are scheduled to be sentenced may 18th. they now have 10 days to file a motion for a new trial. and remember these 3 defendants did represent themselves. reporting live in downtown baltimore tonight, fox 45 news at 5:30. >>> couldn't jury deadlocked on most serious charges against the man accused in the death of 8 people at street race. 20-year-old taylor of driving in illegal street race and reckless driver but after deliberating for 1